Toby Harnden was the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC, from 2006 to 2011. Click here for Toby's website. Follow him on Twitter here @tobyharnden and on Facebook here. He is the author of the bestselling book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story Britain's War in Afghanistan.

Addicted to Facebook

If you haven't got into FacebookÂ then I'm sure you will soon. With junk emails swamping our inboxes, Facebook offers a way out – a method of connecting and sharing information with only those you want to talk to and hear from. It is already starting to revolutionise politics and journalism.

Join the party on Facebook

I confess that I'm hooked. For bloggers the potential is enormous – bringing together a group of people who with a mutual interest. As an experiment, I'm starting a Facebook group called "Readers of Toby Harnden's blog" -Â a way of letting you know when and what I've posted and a forum for discussion away from the public eye.

So how does Facebook work? For those who haven't yet got into it, it couldn't be easier. Just go to www.facebook.com and register using your email address and password. You'll get an email with a link – once you've followed it, you'll have your own Facebook page.

One of the best functions is uploading pictures. Rather than laboriously emailing pictures to your friends, you can post them onto your Facebook page and all your friends will be able to see them. Who are your friends? Simple. Only those people who, by mutual agreement, want to be friends.

Facebook was created in 2004 by a Harvard student. It was then expanded to other Boston area colleges and then all Ivy League schools.

Since last September, anyone has been able to join and there are now 30 million members. Of course, all the politicians are jumping onto the bandwagon, as are haggard old hacks like me. Barack Obama has 108, 249 friends and Hillary Clinton 26,480.

Politicians are sending messages out via Facebook. The other day, David Miliband, the new UK Foreign Secretary (who does happen to be a real friend – we were at Oxford together in the mid-1980s) sent out a message about US-UK relations via Facebook to his 969 friends (we Brits are a bit behind, but give us time).

But, of course, all the pols have people to do Facebook for them. It's bogus really – though a good tool to get a message out.

Those of us who manage our Facebook page ourselves will get much more use and enjoyment out of it. So, back to the "Readers of Toby Harnden's blog" group. Just register on Facebook, search for the group and apply to join. Email me if you have any problems.

I'll only reject sworn enemies and obvious lunatics. It'll be a way of sharing information, discussing blogs and Telegraph stories and keeping in touch. And the beauty of Facebook is that if we get bored, either of us can reject the other electronically and be done with it.